Third Root of America: My perspective

Earle Richardson, Employment of Negroes in Agriculture, 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor. Public domain

Let me be clear about my place in America. Though my ancestral lineage may extend to Africa, for which I am exceedingly proud, I was born in America, a great nation for which my forebears lay the foundation on their strong backs with undying endurance amid unspeakable toil and abuse without recompense for better than 250 years.

I am the “Third Root” of this nation, after Native Americans, the “First Root”; and European settler/pillagers, the “Second Root.” My story is an old one — forcibly uprooted from Africa in the 16th century and transplanted here.

It was not by choice of my forebears, but here I am, here we are, 40 million strong — the Third Root.

I embrace America. I am not outside of the gate looking in. I built the gate with gnarled, bruised hands beneath an enslaver’s whip. I toiled amid cotton blossoms under a broiling sun, and in torrential rains. This is why America is my homeland as much as any man.

If I decide to wave the flag and speak great tidings about this land or if I decide to defer to criticism and protest to make this nation a better homeland for all, it is my prerogative. The blood and sweat of my people throughout the history of this nation determined that long ago.

I am America’s Third Root. This land is shared by me through my 16th-century investment in it. Again, I declare, I am not standing outside of the gate looking in. I built the gate! Let no one, no manner of racial hatred and evil tell you any different.

Never forget it!

Spread far and wide! We can repel the tyranny against the Third Root if we collectively embrace the truth. Tell granddad, grandma, mom, and dad; tell the children, nieces, nephews, and cousins, the “Extended Village!”

Proclaim it far and wide — tyranny has no place!

Sign on to this literary movement. The global community needs to know the Third Root of America stands as one.

The following individuals acknowledge and sign on in solidarity with the Third Root of America. Will you sign on?